We Need Each Other
Yom Kippur 5786 by Rabbi Nathan Kamesar We need each other. That’s the premise of this sermon. And yet as nice as that sounds, and as easy as that is to affirm, I can promise you it can take a lot longer to learn than one might think. I’ve learned that lesson the hard way. It’s […]
Sacred Touchstones
Kol Nidrei 5786 by Rabbi Nathan Kamesar As I stand here on Erev Yom Kippur, the eve of the Day of Atonement, I’m picturing us on the shore of a river. I don’t know why we’re here, but our task, I feel certain, is to reach the other side. The current is rushing, and the […]
Moments of Clarity: Connecting With the Divine
Rosh Hashanah 5786 by Rabbi Nathan Kamesar In the course of my prayers these days, I do a lot of just sitting and listening: sitting and letting my heart, my spirit, wander, seeing what comes. Recently, what has come to me was a leadership course I took in rabbinical school during which we were asked […]
Commemorating The Cycle of Life
Erev Rosh Hashanah 5786 by Rabbi Nathan Kamesar This is a special moment. We’re welcoming in Rosh Hashanah, the New Year. It’s a moment of beginnings, of the conclusion of one cycle and the beginning of the next. The earth continues its revolution around the sun, as the moon, relevant to how Jews have marked […]
The Heart As Agent For The Divine
by Rabbi Nathan Kamesar In a few moments, we’re going to sing the beautiful words and haunting melody of Ahat Sha’alti from Psalm 27, a psalm which tradition teaches that we chant every morning and every night from the beginning of the month of Elul, the last month of the Jewish year, through Rosh Hashanah […]